This evening, an individual maliciously exploited and utilized access to modify and install a malicious plugin on one of our servers. This resulted in elevated levels within our MAUL system (admin permissions) to promote, demote, view server/ban logs, amongst other MAUL related permissions and access. Below, we provide a full account of events to address the issue at hand. While we are embarrassed that our service was interrupted, this confirms that the decisions made by the Community Management, Tech team, and Executive team were the correct ones.
On September 17, 2023, a conversation was held to remove Majesty, a previous Counter-Strike Manager, from their position as Leadership due to a misrepresentation of community values. Members across the Leadership and Community Management teams believed this individual was not representing EdgeGamers as intended, frequently displaying immature behavior unbecoming of a leadership member. This general belief was confirmed when the same individual exploited access to a Counter-Strike server to gain access to our MAUL system and began promoting and demoting various individuals through the MAUL system.
With the swift actions of the Tech team, services were quickly halted and taken offline. Systems such as MAUL, forums, Discord, and servers were taken offline to properly identify, mitigate, and resolve the security issue at hand. The actions of @GardenGroveVW's team, namely @Garrett, @Mooshua, @MS, @Skle, and @Gabe, resulted in a quick resolution of the matter. In the end, the main individuals who were affected were @Luna (lol), who was demoted and banned due to a personal vendetta and grudge (and we're happy to report Luna is not going anywhere any time soon).
I'd like to be clear - the suspicion of the Leadership and Community Management teams that this person is unfit to lead this community was ultimately confirmed through the actions that transpired here today. While occurrences like this are, again, embarrassing, we are a gaming community that puts trust in individuals and provides them with a chance to make a difference here. We will continue to implement processes to vet candidates and place the right people in the proper positions of leadership while ensuring access to servers will be responsibly handled moving forward. We are confident and stand by our decisions and ultimately have landed in the line of thinking that this will make us stronger, not weaker. Attempts to undermine us will only reinforce our commitment to safety and security, ensuring the best possible gaming experience for our community. A temporary disruption won't get in the way of our mission.
We apologize for the disruption and the embarrassing display of immature behavior. We will learn from this experience. We're not going anywhere. Here's to the future we craft ahead.
Best,
Austin
EdgeGamers Organization
Chief Executive Officer
